Worsening droughts, storms, and torrential rain in some of the world's largest economies could cause $5.6 trillion in losses to GDP by 2050, according to a report released Monday.
This year heavy rains have triggered floods that inundated cities in China and South Korea and disrupted water and electricity supply in India. In contrast, drought has put farmers' harvests at risk across Europe.
Such disasters are costing the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars. Last year's extreme droughts, floods and storms led to global losses of more than $224 billion, according to the Emergency Events Database https://www.emdat.be/ maintained by the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.